In my opinion this was the worse special to date, running this one time was more than enough. I made sure not to volunteer to run it after gencon I visited multiple cons. Orgins that year was I think the best, since the person acting Shiela did it in a humorous way.

The second part was just as bad as part I. though in much different aspects. My low point was witnessing my table die do to time as well as starting late.

I spent a bunch of Gold and Prestige to bring my character back. But the fact was: I did NOTHING THE ENTIRE SCENARIO! I got hit by Plane Shift within the first 15 minutes; Game over for me.

Nice long post from a players viewpoint.

I would suggest GM'ing, then take your bad experiences and flip it. Learn from it.

I do not think anyone would care if you stopped playing PFS.

I think tables of players would care if you became a great GM.

Personally I find it extremely bad form to kill or remove a person from a scenario in the first encounter. But, I have usually allowing the person to get raised after the encounter. This is not the case for this scenario.

Undel I have see that post of the dwarven forge forum. AWESOME by the way. The final act of Storming the diamond gate has some unique problems.

I have 6 core sets + to paint, I originally didn't like the proposed colors, but I think they ended up looks better after the kickstarter. I have yet to paint them but I have been thinking of doing a Monochrome paint scheme. I am thinking something like a H. R. Giger paint job. In my planning I am at around 7 steps for painting, will likely try to decrease the paint steps down hopefully by 2.

Your sandstone sets also look great,

I would look into the snakes part I with the sandtones. At some later time I will scroll through scenario's till I can come up with a good mix of both of them.

I usually pre-build part of the dungeon or a room then bag it in a freezer bag. I also usually include dungeon dressings and monster that will be in these rooms.

Start small, the smaller the better, huge maps should be attempted later once you find that the amount of pieces signifigantly increase build time. I also prep using a page of graph paper with notes on the configurations of the build.

Going to a convention or a store makes it harder to build than leisurely at home, it can be stressful like putting together a puzzle.

These would be the order I would try to use the pieces.

Goblin Blood Dead
would be a good one to start with a relatively small dungeon in the second half, if you bagged it you are looking at 4 bags and relatively small set up time. You could easily build as you go.

Song of the Sea Witch
same with the Goblin Blood dead, though you do have a elevation change it seams it would be easy to accomplish with stacking DF on top of each others.

Chasm of Screams
4 levels of cavern travel could be built one level at a time, would likely use 40 peices per level.

Wonders of the Weave part 2
would take a large amount of tiles. single floor large footprint.

I am not a huge fan of map changes, this requires more time between set-ups unless you could pre-build with multiple tables and have players rotate to a new table.

As a backer of both of these Kickstarters, as well as using the first one. You need to be selective on the scenario's that you want to use them. The Blackrose Museum looked like a good map till I tried building it was was a couple pieces short.

Then again I am in the process of planning the Eyes of the Ten in all Dwarven Forge, I will try to post pictures of it at some point.

I am stepping down as Venture Captain, it has been really exciting to see our local PFS community grow. When I started playing PFS there was one store running PFS every other week. Currently we host PFS at 8 stores near Indianapolis.

Kevin ran his 150 game on August 3 2014. He ran a special game before GenCon for a Thod when he arrived early before Gencon. Kevin is an outstanding GM he routinely commits to volunteer at local and regional cons. He really sets the example on what a 5 star GM is.

If you have attended GenCon, Origins, Egypt Wars, Flat Con, Who’s Yer Con, InConJunction. Likely you have had a chance to meet or played with him. I probably skipped a couple conventions. If you are a coordinator you will find Kevin one of the most professional GM’s that volunteers.

He is also a very fun GM to play with. I also consider him the best GM in Indiana. If you have a chance to play with him at a con, I would urge you to attend one of his games!

Also recently, he has been accepted into the VL ranks supporting the new card game.

It also cool to see how some scenarios are rated, along with others nice top 20 list.

I also think there is a problem with forcing players to play up in older scenarios. I am not sure how prevalent this is right now. But during this last season I GM'd one of the top 20 from season 3. I believe it is a solid 5 star scenario. I had a perfect party that was doomed to fail, based off their level and their APL. First combat PC deaths, what followed was misery for the party. If they were to review the party now, I think it would reach a lower total.

What is surprising now is the low ratings on season 5. I am not sure this is editing or even negatively biased reviews, or even badly GM'd games. I read some of the longer playing scenarios have got bad reviews due to long game times.

The Sealed Gate man that is reviewed bad. Fun Sponge/Classic Baird reviews go back and forth. At Gen-Con I had some local players that played it with Kyle. I have to say they enjoyed it, they actually told me in depth how much they liked it. They also were pretty excited about the whole scenario.

Now these players will likely never write a review about that game!

Was the fact that Kyle being a 5 star GM made it better, or the fact that he was the author make it better?

Do reviews even matter? As a community or author, editor do you read and reflect on reviews? Do you die in a game and blame the author? Do you GM it yourself to see what it is like or how you can improve on it?

He did a great job organizing and setting this up! He is likely a little tired and worn-out, Gen-Con isn’t even officially started yet. Give him your thanks in what-ever form, it may help recharge his batteries.

While reading the new Guide to PFS Organized Play, browsing through the new factions, I was stunned to see the phoenix emblem beside the sovereign courts entry. Because I know that phoenix, I've seen it before when I was looking for phoenix tattoo ideas.

Link should be fixed, I know some of the locals park south of the convention center near the new Lucas Oil Stadium. I think the parking is much cheaper there but I am not sure it is probably 4 blocks away.

This will be my first GenCon. I'll be staying at one of the hotels on the east side.

I called to find out about parking near the convention center. I don't recall now exactly how much they said it would be, $25-$30 a day I'm thinking. Then I read about the shuttle for a one-time $50 fee. Now I'm torn. The shuttle is much cheaper, but the schedule is fixed and wouldn't provide the convenience of having a nearby supply cache.

I'm already paying a small fortune for the hotel room, what's an extra hundred dollars for parking?

Any advice on the availability/convenience of parking near the convention center?

I am not sure how far east you are, but there is a decent bus system in Indy

So Gen-Con is coming right up. So I would like to just offer some advice.

This year will be the busiest year more so than any other year. Expect record attendance as well as added space this year.

For the record attendance expect longer lines everywhere. Expect more food trucks on Georgia Street. (My favorite is a Pork Chop Sandwich and a Velvet Cupcake from 2 different trucks).

Couple things I would recommend.

Don't loose your badge, I have personally done this twice. Both times the Companies HQ held on to it for me. I was very lucky both times.

Shower every morning (has to be said), dedicate yourself to at least one good meal a day. Skip fast food like McDonald;s, Subway and Steak and Shake. They usually are extremely busy. Consider some of the area’s dining-in restaurant’s or just trying something different. You may like whatever fast food, try something different.

Drink plenty of water, have some sort of back-up snacks as well as aspirin.

If you have a vehicle at the Convention, consider packing a cooler with some food. It is almost always faster to walk to a car and get food than getting food at or around the Convention. Also if you do bring a cooler, it is always nice to give away some water soda or chips. Over the years, I have given out allot of water that big name Author on the New York Times best seller list, they don’t want to pay 5-6$ on a bottle of water. I have had allot of good conversations with some of my favorite Authors and Game Designers that have started with giving out a bottle of water.

Cosplay - be respectful of people in costume. If you want to take a photo be polite and ask, don’t photo bomb. Also if you are going to be wearing a costume, please consider wearing it only for one day or have some sort of laundry service available.

Be considerate of your GM, ask if they need anything, they are your volunteer’s. For ticketed events try to not waste tickets, if you are going to skip a game turn your ticket in for a refund that way someone else will at least have a chance to purchase a ticket for that game.

Also be kind to the Game Marshal’s they volunteer their time and have a stressful job, yelling at them or hurting their feelings helps no one.

If you wake-up late and think you may skip playing an event. I would recommend skipping it, relax drink some coffee and get a big breakfast.
There is allot of stuff going on at the Convention you simply can’t see everything. If you are crazy enough check-out some of the late/early morning stuff. Between midnight and 7 a.m. you can find a whole different Gen-Con.